


Glitter

by whenyoudesertme (phrenk)



Category: Japanese Actor RPF, Perfume (Band)
Genre: F/F, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 01:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phrenk/pseuds/whenyoudesertme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An exciting day with much on the line for rivals Perfume and the Reason.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glitter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elfiepike](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfiepike/gifts).



> For my dear elfiepike, originally meant for you in mini-exchange. Given my struggles with this, I'm glad I ended up writing you something else for that, but I'm also glad this can be a bonus for you. <3 Because you are great. <3<3 Thanks for looking this over, kinoface! <3

"Ah, Perfume-san, right this way." The immaculately tuxedo-garbed servant bowed, indicating a path off to the side of the shining, enormous main door.

Nocchi caught Kashiyuka giving the swirl of brightly-colored party guests a wistful look, though A~chan's eyes were fixed ahead, ready for the challenges of the night.

The servant led them to a spacious room, set up with mirrors and the costumes that Perfume had sent over beforehand. She looked at the room, then back at Perfume, then asked politely, "Your staff is still on their way?"

Kashiyuka flashed her dimples. "Oh, we just do each other."

The servant blinked.

Casting her eyes reproachfully at Kashiyuka, Nocchi amended, "We do each other's makeup. Thank you for showing us to our room." All three of Perfume bowed, and the servant responded in kind before backing out of the door.

As soon as she was gone, Nocchi swiftly retrieved her handheld computer from her bag. "All right, we're on in fifteen. A~chan, head through the vents and check on our destination while I hack in to the main power supply in case we need to make a hasty exit." She could feel Kashiyuka's inquiring gaze, sweet but inexorable. "Yuka-chan, get our clothes and makeup ready, fast. It's just as important as our real mission that our cover is perfect."

They'd been stealing for four years now on the planet of Nhoni, formerly a paradise for thieves. Founded by some of the most successful burglars the multiverse had ever known, the system was set up such that stealing wasn't punishable by law--so long as you weren't caught during the act. The unwritten rule had been that stealing was only to be done from someone better off than yourself, but that had changed over time, as the founding families had grown older, stodgier, and less inclined to risk their wealth in a game they'd devised themselves.

The Houses had stopped stealing from each other and hired an amazing number of guards, the best in this backwoods system, and trained them to the point of perfection in intimidation and efficacy. Now the laws backfired, because getting caught stealing meant deportation to a neighboring planet, one well-known for its faint but pervasive odor of rotten eggs. In the golden age, only the lousiest of thieves had gotten caught without being able to subsequently escape, but that was no longer the case with the addition of the guards. Just about everybody who stole from a wealthy family got caught, stayed caught, and got deported.

But not Perfume, Nocchi thought fiercely, fingers flying over her screen. They wouldn't get caught, and they wouldn't steal from people too poor for guards, either, like many of the thieves had started to do. Perfume made a point of stealing only from the founding families, the fat cats who'd made the laws then twisted them to their purposes. With the majority of this House's guards off dealing with a disturbance in one of their warehouses, tonight was the night to hit the mansion itself.

Nocchi felt hands on her hips, then looked down to find Kashiyuka unbuttoning her pants. She went with it, stepping out of the legs absently as she finished her job online, then placed her computer back in her bag, leaving it without password protection in case she needed it quickly. Calculated risks were intrinsic to their job, though it made Nocchi nervous as all hell.

A~chan dropped back down through the ceiling vent gracefully. "Ten guards, all in tactical suits, just as expected."

Nocchi grinned smugly, patting her hip, only to meet skin. "Yuka-chan, I need that remote from my pants before you weasel A~chan out of hers."

Kashiyuka waved a hand behind her. "Get it yourself, then put your shorts on. We need to hurry."

A~chan yelped as business-like hands stripped her quickly. "I can undress myself!"

"Nocchi gave me a job," Kashiyuka said, grinning up before smooching A~chan's bare thigh with a flourish. "Put your dress on while I figure out our tights."

"Your job is to dress yourself also, you know," Nocchi called as she slid the precious little device into her shorts pocket before pulling on her shirt.

Finally they were in costume, and quickly got to putting on each other's makeup with deft, practiced movements.

A knock came on the door.

"We're ready!" Nocchi exclaimed, adrenaline rushing in her veins. She met the eyes of her partners for a moment each, building their resolve together, before they headed out the door.

*

Karina thought it was about even odds that the Reason were the only people there who were going for the champows. It was an extremely alluring prize, to be sure, one by which no team on the planet could fail to be tempted.

Champows looked dull, like worthless rocks of a washed-out shade of beige. A person's first look at them was always disappointing. It was the second look where they started to grasp the appeal.

The world seemed to light up in every shade of the rainbow, leaving only the jewel itself lifeless, and yet that was the only place an enraptured audience wanted to look.

Sixty seconds looking at a champow gave a glorious high that lasted for hours. The problem came in dragging oneself away before more than a few minutes had passed, because after that there was no coming back to lucidity.

Everyone wanted them, either for themselves or to sell to others for a shocking profit. House Matsumoto had just acquired some, and this was where the odds evened up. To steal from House Matsumoto and get caught was to get immediately deported, or, as rumor had it, dismembered.

Karina tilted her head, listening to Yuriko's muttering of concentration and Yuko's breathy noises of exertion layered over the chatter and bustle of the ballroom. Her hairstyle was glamorous, and her silk gown hung perfectly, and she was bored and pulsing with excitement all at once. She wished she'd insisted on taking her turn doing the physical stealing instead of working on the inside as a distraction, but Yuko had been sure that this was a time when cuteness just wasn't going to cut it, and Yuriko had murmured appreciatively about Karina being _statuesque_. After their break from plotting to christen their bed for the hundredth time, somehow their roles for this job had been decided.

Yuriko, as always, was tech.

"Yuko-chan, I'm ready to disable the alarms as you come to them," came her froggy voice. Karina smiled politely at yet another well-dressed man and tried to look aloof and available simultaneously. She didn't know which of these people she might have to manipulate before the evening was through, but she was prepared to wade through the smarmy lot of them if it got her team out safely.

She sidled gracefully from one side of the room to the other, keeping on eye on the flashily-dressed son of the household so that she could be sure to avoid his excessively perceptive notice. An older man approached her, leering openly at her chest, and she smiled again, imagining treating him to a decisive knee to the groin.

Instead she whispered pleasantries at the lights dimmed. As the stage started to raise so that all could see, she grabbed the old man's wandering hand and held it in an iron grip, flashing him a teasing smile to keep him sweet.

The music began to play. Lasers started flashing throughout the room. Karina sighed.

"Please excuse me," she said firmly, then extricated herself to a dark corner to bond with a looming, shadowed palm tree. She grumbled to it, "We have company."

"Who?" Yuriko said, still clattering away at her keyboard.

"Who do you think?" Karina said, rolling her eyes at silky fake fronds.

"Ah," Yuko said breathlessly. "Then?"

"Plan B," Karina confirmed.

"Smash and grab," Yuriko said gleefully. "I'm coming in."

For a moment, all Karina could hear was the music, Perfume's voices familiar despite the distortion. She swayed to the rhythm, trying to blend in but also enjoying one of her favorite songs.

She wouldn't put it past Perfume to perform this one just to tease her as they made her evening much more difficult. Those three always seemed to know more than they should.

She sighed again, but inside her boredom had vanished and her heart was hammering. "Yuri-chan, what are you wearing?"

"Plaid muumuu, chunky glasses," replied Yuriko in a distracted whisper.

Karina thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "A fortune-teller. But you'll really have to sell it, do you know anything about palm-reading, or--"

"I'm in!" came another whisper, this time laced with lazy triumph. "I told the guy my name's on the list, then winked at him."

"Thank goodness even highly trained guards can be idiots," Yuko laughed.

Karina let her breath out in relief that Yuriko was in safely, then teased, "Now that we're on plan B, at least we know Yuko won't fall asleep in the vents."

"Fall asleep once, mocked forever," Yuko complained. "You know these can be warm and cozy!"

Karina meandered her way casually back over to her sleazy admirer, saying quietly, "Yuriko, through the kitchens, I'll leave with an escort and then lose him. Three minutes, convene in the hallway prepared for a fight."

"Always," Yuriko said, and Karina could just picture her dopey grin.

*

When the last blips of _Glitter_ had faded and Perfume were making their bows, Kashiyuka grinned and waved and bounced up and down a bit, but her mind was on the champows. In the thieving team of Perfume, A~chan was their leader and the inspiration, Nocchi was the cunning, and she was the gumption, as A~chan put it. With their goal protected by the might of House Matsumoto, she'd need all the gumption she had to get them through this without disaster.

Back in the dressing room, they scrambled out of their performance clothes and into skintight, flexible black outfits. Kashiyuka received some help from Nocchi in divesting her legs of tights and grinned down at her, knowing that Nocchi also listed legs next to gumption on the list of her contributions. They all had long legs that they used to advantageous distraction, but Nocchi swore that Kashiyuka was the best--and most shameless--at deploying them.

"Nocchi, stop fondling our weapons," A~chan scolded. "That's for later, if we win."

"When we win," Kashiyuka corrected sweetly, taking Nocchi's wandering hand and giving it a fond squeeze. "Boost me up into the vents, girls."

A~chan nodded with a fierce face, then struck a guts pose to urge them to victory. "It's time to kick some ass."

A few minutes later, Kashiyuka dropped out of the vent and into the hallway ready to fight, but it seemed like the ass in question had already been kicked, because the hallway was deserted.

A~chan fell gracefully down and into a crouch next to her, then straightened in puzzlement.

"It can't be good that I don't hear fighting," Nocchi muttered above, and Kashiyuka locked eyes with their leader.

Another breath, and A~chan grinned wildly. "A little competition."

Kashiyuka nodded, a smile growing on her own face. "The Reason?"

"Dammit," Nocchi complained, but Yuka could hear her anticipation of a good fight, and then Nocchi was out of the vent and taking in the empty hallway just before someone rounded the corner with an unconscious guard's neck in the crook of her elbow.

*

Yuko caught up to Karina, wheezing a bit under the weight of a limp body, and narrowed her eyes on seeing Perfume. Yuriko bumped into her from behind, laboriously dragging her own insensible guard.

Karina dropped her burden to the floor against the wall, and Yuko shoved her defeated foe over on top, giggling as Yuriko did the same.

Cracking her knuckles, Karina said, "Let's go to it then."

Three women sprinted from each end of the hall, and Yuko knew they'd all be shouting battle cries if they didn't still need to be quiet, since it was possible they could still be heard in the ballroom though the cameras and alarms were down, probably twice over with two techies on it.

The teams hit with a smack: Yuko's small fist caught A~chan's chin, Kashiyuka leaped impossibly high to bring a foot down onto Karina's head, and Yuriko and Nocchi immediately went to the floor in a savage clinch. Kashiyuka rushed forward to attack Yuko, leaving Karina reeling, and Yuko shoved A~chan away to take on this new threat, glad when Karina grabbed her leader counterpart and started trying to smack her head against the wall.

Perfume were horribly strong, but the Reason had trained exhaustively to catch up, and the fight stayed even for long minutes. Then Yuriko's muumuu was torn away, leaving her in clinging boy-short underwear and a threadbare blue tank-top, and Yuko's moment of distraction in appreciating her exposed partner's curves ended with Kashiyuka wrestling her to the ground and pinning her.

Karina growled, her silk dress ripped and her forearm pressed against A~chan's throat for a tenuous moment. "Get up, Yuko!"

"No amount of push-ups will make me stronger than Kashiyuka," Yuko complained, wriggling uselessly as hands moved to grip her neck.

"Ahh!" came a shout, and Yuko and her opponent looked over as one to see Nocchi with a shocked face and unguarded stance. "She kissed me!"

"You liked it," Yuriko drawled, then took Nocchi out with a roundhouse kick. Kashiyuka abandoned a gasping Yuko to aid her partner, and A~chan slipped sinuously away from Karina.

"Karina," Yuko choked out. "Leader, she's--"

But it was too late: as Karina whirled and gave chase, A~chan slapped the opening mechanism of the champow room and rushed inside.

*

Even as her head ached from Yuriko's kick, Nocchi plotted, eyes flitting around the hallway. She was trapped against the wall for the present, though Kashiyuka was working wildly to pull the leech-like Yuriko away, and A~chan was grabbing the prize...

She saw Yuko teeter to her feet. Grabbing Yuriko's hands and bringing them to her neck, she ordered, "Yuka, down!" and her partner dropped to the floor without question.

As soon as A~chan was out of the treasure room with the jewels surely somewhere on her person, Karina pounced, and Nocchi chose that moment to wail, "Oh, please, won't someone help us!"

The guards she'd seen regaining consciousness lurched to their feet, squinting at the chaos of the hallway, then started forward.

"I think they're trying to steal the treasure!" Nocchi said piteously, letting her eyes slide slyly to the side to meet Yuriko's.

Her opponent had released her and was backing away, but too late: the hapless guards rushed forward and grabbed for her and Yuko, not yet wondering why the three damsels in distress were in a restricted area at all. Yuriko spun and kicked and inflicted damage while Yuko did the same a few feet away, but the guards were skillful enough to occupy the Reason for enough time that Perfume managed to slip away down the hall, though Karina nearly tripped A~chan with a desperate slide that aimed for those running feet and only just missed.

As her teammates scuttled back up into the vents, Nocchi watched Yuko and Yuriko violently subdue the unlucky guards a second time and shove them back against the wall. Just as they turned to follow Karina, who was limping to her feet to try and get her hands on Nocchi, Kashiyuka held out a hand from above and Nocchi fled up into the vents with a cheerful wave of her fingers as a parting blow.

*

Yuriko slid her hands over the plush seats of the limousine, glancing at Karina's face.

Their leader's expression was still stormy, and Yuko looked pissed as well.

"And this limo was so expensive," Yuriko said, as if to herself, and both her partners' heads snapped up at this provocation.

"All our planning for nothing," Karina said tightly, glaring at Yuriko in the absence of anyone more suitable.

Yuko clenched a fist and punched it against the upholstery. After a moment, she groaned with disappointment, like she'd finally processed their defeat, then settled back with a less angry expression. "Ah well, this is a treat, anyway. We'll just have to work harder next time, huh?"

Yuriko nodded silently, amused eyes on Karina, who wasn't appeased. "Work harder? How much harder can we work, and they're still stronger. We might as well just--"

"We might as well just change our focus," Yuko interrupted, abruptly perky. "They're stronger, but we can be smarter." Yuriko nudged at her thigh, and Yuko took the hint and clambered over to sit by Karina. "Next time we'll beat them, Leader, right?" Yuko said coaxingly, curling up against her side.

Yuriko worked her way over to plop down on the other side and stroked the smoothness of Karina's arm. "House Matsumoto will be out for blood," she said softly, watching her fingers trace patterns on soft skin.

With a grumpy snort, Karina relaxed against her seat, stretching an arm over each of her partners' shoulders and tugging them in even closer. "At least someone put it to those bastards."

She stretched out her legs and heaved a sigh. "And at least we got out all right, if just barely." Her arm was very warm around Yuriko's shoulders.

Suddenly, Yuko straightened. "It's Tuesday, isn't it?"

Yuriko blinked, a bit lost, but Karina sat bolt upright. "Yuko-chan, you're right." She assumed a determined expression and said inspiringly, "We may have lost this battle, but our night's war is only just beginning."

Though Karina looked immediately sheepish, Yuriko and Yuko shouted agreement, and good spirits were restored in the limousine.

Yuriko twined her fingers through Karina's and pressed her lips to that bare shoulder, mumbling against it, "Plus, there are still four other Houses."

"We'll think about that later," Yuko said, sounding drowsy but content. "Tonight we fight to restore our honor."

*

When A~chan opened the door to find the Reason standing on her steps, she grinned widely, rubbing Perfume's triumph in unmercifully.

Karina rolled her eyes and pushed her teammates forward wordlessly, but Yuko said boldly, "We're here for revenge."

Nocchi poked her head into the entryway and motioned for them to hurry up, saying dryly, "You guys take game night too seriously."

"Game night?" Yuriko said lowly, flicking her eyes at Yuko, who picked up the cue and said loudly, "Game night? The very name is unfitting for the battles of--"

"Where's the beer?" Karina interrupted, and A~chan offered an arm amicably to lead her to the kitchen.

"Game night," Yuko sniffed behind them, and Yuriko let out a guffaw. They followed them in, and Yuko continued, "Last week you all cheated."

Kashiyuka wandered her way to the kitchen door, smiling, and patted Yuko on the arm. "You know we wouldn't, not on game night."

"But you won, and we're better," Yuriko lilted, all deadpan logic. Karina popped open a beer and took a long, long swig. A~chan got her another, watching over their bickering teammates with wry amusement.

"If you're better, prove it," Nocchi said, slitted eyes dropping closed when Kashiyuka came to drape over her from behind.

"It's on," Yuko said, eyes lighting with fun, and Karina opened her second beer, complaining through her smile, "It's always on, every Tuesday, you don't have to say it every time, Yuko-chan."

It was many hours and beers before game night was over and peace was restored to Perfume's house. The trio led their rivals to the guest bedroom, this hallway filled with laughter instead of fighting.

"Ah, thanks for killing the power earlier so we could get out, Nocchi," Karina said, belated but sincere. Nocchi just waved a hand in acknowledgment, and A~chan watched fondly as their guests flopped sleepily into bed and curled up together adorably, though not without hands in inappropriate places.

"Like puppies," she whispered to her partners. Kashiyuka dimpled, eyes just as fond on their friends, but Nocchi hissed, "Puppies who won game night."

"We'll beat them next week," Yuka said peaceably, taking their hands. "Right now, I'm ready to sleep."

In their own room, A~chan kissed Nocchi, then Kashiyuka, then watched them kiss each other, feeling warm and possessive, and much richer than she'd been that morning, too.

Kissing complete, Perfume stepped into the glow of their circle of charging stations. They'd put them in close so that they could hold hands, and the machines began to power up just as their fingers laced comfortably together. Finally, just as the power reached its zenith and they were ready, they tapped a complex rhythm on the back of each other's hands and sank into hibernation for their well-deserved rest.


End file.
